I'm not gonna lie, even I did not expect a chapter two. Let's Go!
Chapter 2:
A Hind, An Arrow, and A Bullet.
Percy ran until he met the cold breeze of the woods. When he felt safe again, he took a deep breath and finally started weeping for his mother. He recalled the wonderful memories of her. Those long drives to Montauk, her gentle kisses on his head, that one time he almost got killed by snakes when his mother saved him. Even though he was the one who released them, she never got angry at him. But now, she was just…
Gone.
Gone, by the hands of Gabe. If only Percy were stronger, maybe he could've saved his mother. Perhaps if he was a demigod, he could've used his powers to kill Gabe a long ago. But then they would have to worry about the scent cursed by Lamia. But they still could've worked something out! And his mother would still be alive! But no! The world just had to make him a clear-sighted mortal. The most useless connection to the Greek world.
Sometimes, life is just too cruel.
Percy kept his head in his hands, as he wept quietly for his mom in the flickering moonlight.
Out of nowhere, he heard a tiny squeak near him. He peeked through his hands and saw a tiny squirrel staring at the pupil of his sea-green eyes.
He tilted his head in confusion.
The little woodland creature copied him.
He placed his palm in front of the squirrel and shivered slightly as it climbed onto his head.
And pulled Percy's hair tightly, pulling it towards nowhere in particular.
"OW!" Percy exclaimed as he stood up, dried tears visible on his cheeks. The squirrel kept pulling his hair.
Desperately, Percy put his hand on his head, trying to catch the chipmunk. It was hard and unsuccessful at first. But he finally managed to grasp it in his hands. When he looked at it, it stared back. Until it bit his hand and ran away, making Percy wince.
Deciding not to let the squirrel go, he ran after it…
Only To get even more lost in the woods.
Suddenly, a blur of speed whooshed past him as Percy stumbled and fell due to inertia(Cause why not? :D). It took a while for the dust to clear down but when it did, all he could see was silver.
The trees, their leaves, the ground, even the sky! They all had a flash of silver.
Percy slowly looked around to find a solution, and sure enough, he found a spot where the silver light was way more intense than the rest.
This was not a natural occurrence. Most people would run away as soon as they see something weird. But Percy was anything but normal. So he did the most sane thing and followed that intense light which glowed brighter and brighter the deeper it went until he couldn't even see his hands but he still kept on moving forward.
At last, he could start making out the outlines of structures. Still not proper sight but he at least knew the way and further on his vision slowly started to return and when it did,
He gasped.
In front of him, was the most beautiful, and majestic creature he had ever seen lying down on the lush green grass. He recognized it as deer as he had seen many like it but one that radiated power at this level and with such dumbfounding beauty was a new one on him. The forest around him too was thriving, unlike the rest of it which was boring and dull. It made no sense to him, but what did make sense was that the sight he was seeing, was something that people would never see.
But something wasn't right.
Percy looked closely.
One of the deer's legs was twitching.
He ran towards the deer at full speed to see what was wrong…and failed to see the rock in front of him which made him trip.
"Ow!" Percy complained for what felt like the thousandth time but quickly got up and ran towards the deer again.
Carefully.
At last, when reached the deer, he quickly moved his studied its legs, and sure enough, there was a big metal piece, no, a bullet, in it. But unlike the bullets Percy had seen in movies, this was…brown? This deer would die, just like his mom earlier if he didn't remove the bullet.
Seriously, Who could ever do such a thing to a poor animal?
Earlier that hour:
"Alright, let's see if it works." Frederick Chase said as he inspected his carefully crafted celestial bronze bullets. It was incredibly tough but he did it. And now it was time to run some tests.
The first test was simple, to check if Celestial Bronze bullets work the same as normal ones. So he was staying overnight at a forest resort and rented a very small part of the forest for his shooting practice.
He had already set the boards in the morning so it would be ideal to test them now if he can. Some people might say that firing a gun, even for practice, in the middle of the night, is wrong. But Frederick isn't one of those "some" people. This is to show that he doesn't follow the system and has nothing to do with his impatience and excitement ruling over his schedule of the test happening in the morning.
So, Frederick loaded his gun, aimed at the cardboard dummy, and-
BANG! BANG! BANG!
He shot three bullets. He got two on the face but missed one. Oh well, it's not like the missed one's chances of hurting anything are high. Of course, he failed to think of a situation when Artemis' Hind would be running at such a fast pace that it hit the bullet unintendedly and would fall at a place so far away from him.
Percy had no experience in removing bullets but he can try. In the movies, they usually took two metal sticks joined at one end or something to remove it. Maybe he could do the same. But where would he find two thin identical sticks? Surely they won't just appear in his hands-
Two thin identical sticks fell on his lap. Percy, startled, looked around and saw the same squirrel he was chasing before now holding a nut and yet another thin identical twig.
"Uh, thanks?" Percy tried to communicate with the squirrel who looked at him for a second and then ran away.
Percy blinked, thinking about what just happened, before remembering why he needed the twigs.
So, he bent over and focused on the bullet. Slowly and Carefully balanced the twigs on both sides and removed the bullet. Usually in the movies, people would bring medicines and some other things but he didn't have those.
Maybe he should've thought this through.
Then the wound slowly started fading, becoming little by little until it became a scar, and that too, started fading.
Maybe he doesn't have to panic after all.
The deer suddenly stood upright, as if it was never injured, and stared at Percy.
Percy stared back, startled and a little creeped out by the animal's reaction. He became frightened as the deer came nearer to his face. Do deer eat humans? Is he going to die!?
The deer looked at him for a few more seconds, then slowly closed his eyes, sat down, and rested his head on Percy's lap.
Percy, still shocked but melted by the gesture, slowly petted the deer's head.
He was so much in awe at that moment, that he completely missed the silver arrow aimed at his shoulders.
I think you all know who is being introduced next. So, what do you think?
